A simple plot and sharply focused characters makes this a very satisfying tale.
In Aubert’s debut novella, the first installment in a series, a young man leaves home to escape familial expectations >and find adventure.
When the story starts, Shand has already departed from his village, lured by the promise of treasures along a shore, which are said to be near a destroyed boat. He leaves his own prized vessel behind and finds a woman barely alive on dry land. He winds up having to kill her, and shortly thereafter, he finds himself being chased by a wily, violent little man that Shand calls a “native.” This situation becomes an amusing battle of will and wit, played out with no dialogue, save for some pained shouts and screams. The scene showcases a unique, engaging feature of Aubert’s prose throughout this tale: he’s able to tell a full story with very little conversation, but without relying on excessive exposition. Indeed, part of the appeal of this book is that it’s difficult to place it in a particular time or location. However, there are hint in the worldbuildings; for example, Shand’s village depends on fishing, and they don’t seem to know much about any villages that are more than a couple of day’s travel in any direction; it’s also revealed that Shand built one of the first plank boats in his primitive village, using bronze and nails. The author also provides vivid descriptions of the rivers and forests that Shand traverses, and his protagonist meets a diverse variety of people in his adventure. Indeed, his home village is populated with many colorful characters, including his cranky but perhaps more practical uncle, Royce, and a lot of people who think that Shand is a little snooty for trying to build a plank boat so large. In places, Aubert’s book almost seems like a Lake Wobegon tale set in some ancient, undefinable time and place. As a result, readers will look forward to future stories by the author.
A simple plot and sharply focused characters makes this a very satisfying tale.Pub Date: March 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5302-0070-2
Page Count: 130
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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